The present disclosure relates to an improvement in a cymbal or gong.
A conventional cymbal comprises a concave circular disk or plate, usually made of brass or bronze, which produces a sharp, ringing sound when struck. Cymbals are played either in pairs, by being struck together, or singly, by being struck with a drumstick or the like. A gong is typically a large bronze disk having an upturned rim. It is suspended by its rim in a vertical position and is sounded by striking with a stick or hammer that has a padded head.
The tone of a conventional cymbal or gong contains a blend of virtually all notes of the scale or their harmonic complements, made up of a fundamental tone or "bell tone" and overtones. The usual sound effect desired from a cymbal is a "crash". Much prior development work with respect to orchestral cymbals has been directed to the elimination of a dominant musical note which might discord with other instruments of the orchestra. The crash sound of the cymbal in any event maintains a well defined pitch. As in most conventional percussion instruments, the presence of inharmonic frequencies in the sound of a cymbal or gong prevents the listener from recognizing the tone of the percussion instrument.
An object of the present invention is to design a cymbal to create a specific recognizable pitch along with the usual ability to create rythmic noise and crashes. This combination should greatly enhance the use of the cymbal as a musical instrument playable in harmony with the sounds from other instruments.
An example of a prior patent relating to the tonal characteristics of a cymbal is U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,502 to Zildjian, which discloses a second mounting aperture through a cymbal to modify the characteristic cymbal tones when it is mounted through one or the other of the alternate apertures.
Another object of this invention is to provide a cymbal which can be designed mathematically to produce a predetermined characteristic pitch. This is accomplished by constructing the cymbal in the form of an ellipse.